


Full Circle

by Yudonomi



Series: AusHun Week 2020 [3]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: AusHunWeek2020, F/M, Historical Hetalia, World War II, but this isnt graphic or anything, that deserves its own warning i feel, these two are??? complicated., vaguely inspired by the kinkmeme and a softer world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24568267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yudonomi/pseuds/Yudonomi
Summary: Even though the past century hadn't been kind, Roderich Edelstein had always been able to hold his head high, stubborn and prideful to a fault. He was not the one people called the sick man of Europe.So why wasn't he waking up?Written for AusHun Week 2020 Day 3: Immortality
Relationships: Austria/Hungary (Hetalia)
Series: AusHun Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775827
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Full Circle

**Author's Note:**

> if our love lasts forever it's gonna get real awkward when one of us dies.  
>  _(we have buried the putrid corpse of liberty)_  
>  \- A Softer World #996
> 
> Set around late 1940, after Hungary joins the Axis.

Austria was an empire.

With a silver tongue and quite a few strategic marriages, he had built himself up from march to archduchy to empire. He was one of the most powerful beings in the continent. Even though the past century hadn't been kind, Roderich Edelstein had always been able to hold his head high, stubborn and prideful to a fault. He was not the one people called the sick man of Europe.

So Erzsébet had been confident. Austria did not need Hungary and Hungary needed to be free. Roderich would lament and play Liszt until dawn, but he would recover. She could leave him with no regrets. Their marriage would die, but they would live. 

Yet there he was, laying on a bed, stiffer than a soldier. His hands were neatly folded across his torso and his glasses were on a nearby dresser. Erzsébet could almost believe he was sleeping if not for his unmoving chest.

Behind her, Ludwig stood at the doorway, soldier's posture less than stiff. "He's been like this since..." he cleared his throat as Erzsébet turned back to him with a hard look "He is neither worsening nor improving."

She moved towards the bed, leaning over her ex-husband. This was the first time she had seen him in two decades. His dark hair was ruffled far than what he would have thought appropriate to be seen in, to say nothing of his wrinkled dress shirt. He probably hadn't ever been changed out of it.

He looked so gaunt and lifeless, nothing like the crumbling empire Erzsébet had left behind. "You did this." she whispered under her breath. 

"He wanted it." 'Ja' had echoed thousands of times over. 99% of the vote.

"Not like this."

Silence met her back, and her frown deepened the harder she looked at the comatose man before her.

"Ludwig, I think we need some time alone."

Ludwig inhaled deeply, as if he was going to say something, but Erzsébet heard the door shut behind her and footsteps retreating down the hallway. She glanced at the closed door then back to Roderich, and pulled the dresser stool closer. Not even the sound of wood scraping along the floor woke the light sleeper, and she sat on the chair, never taking her eyes off him.

Roderich was a ghost. Hell, he was even paler than _Gilbert_.

"What happened to you?" She asked softly, moving his fringe away from his eyes. March to archduchy to empire to republic to march. If Ludwig was to be believed, then Roderich had been asleep for two years, not breathing for two years.

She bit the bottom of her lip. What was she even doing here? Twenty-two years divorced and yet here she was, looking over her former husband like a caretaker. She did not leave just to come back.

"It's funny how much you can't stand being alone." she said "You finally have Germany. Is this really what you wanted?"

Annexed renamed suppressed war _Roderichdoyouevenknowwhat'sgoingonrightnowmaybeyoushouldchangeyoursurname-_

There was no answer, but there was something in her eye. If Erzsébet closed her eyes, she could hear her politicians debating, Romania cursing at her for taking back her territory, the soldiers marching through her neighbours' lands, the screams of fleeing citizens, and Feliks begging her to accept them. She did not blink. Neither did Roderich.

He slept on, unbothered by Erzsébet's turmoil. She looked at his bare hands, at the tan line where centuries of unions and alliances had made their mark on his ring finger, and at the string barely hidden by his neck that she knew carried their own failure. March to archduchy to empire to republic to march. Back to where he started, Erzsébet at his side again, full-circle.

She reached out to grasp his hand. It was cool like marble. She squeezed it, as if her gloved hands could pass their warmth to him. Probably not, if she herself still felt cold even with them on.

"It's pretty unfair you just get to sleep there while we have to deal with all this; even worse if you die." she continued, rubbing her thumb against his bare skin. _So don't die. You lived after the Great War and you will after this one. You have to because I will not stand for being neighbours with Gilbert and without you to distract him, I will be his only target of choice to annoy for the rest of my life. You have to because I said so. You have to_.

You just have to.

She sighed and hung her head. Her eyes moved to the clock on the dresser. It had been thirty minutes since Ludwig left. Feeling that she had overstayed her welcome, Erzsébet gave Roderich's hand one last squeeze before placing it back on his sheets. As she stood up, she tried to commit as much of him into memory. Who knew when they would meet again? If?

Ludwig was fiddling with a disassembled pistol splayed out on the dining table when Erzsébet went downstairs. Upon noticing her, his hands froze, the tool raised mid-air as he lifted his head to look at her. She could almost imagine the gun pressed against her head. _How many of her people-_

"I trust you finished your business?" 

"Yes. I'll also pass your message back to Gilbert when I see him."

"Thank you. Shall I see you out?"

She put up a hand "I can manage by myself. Auf wiedersehen."

Ludwig frowned and turned back to his work "Auf wiedersehen. Take care, Elisabeth."

Erzsébet gave him a curt nod as she stepped out of his apartment and onto the streets of Berlin. People were milling about, going on with their lives as normal. She wondered how long these days would last; the war was raging on, and despite the Axis' victories throughout the continent, she doubted they would win. Call it loser's intuition, but she did have a record for it. She and Roderich and Ludwig and Gilbert.

 _This is madness_ , she thought. Letting her hair out of the tight knot at the nape of her neck, she set off for the east, the red, black, and white insignia hanging everywhere she passed by burning into her mind.

Germany and its Reich would fall. She just hoped it would not bring Austria with it.

**Author's Note:**

> This was...quite long to write, mostly because I am not fond of researching WWII, so I don't doubt there will be errors. Apologies for that.
> 
> The kinkmeme inspiration for this was a post that went something like 'what if something real bad happened to annexed austria' so i chose something that I imagine happened to partitioned Feliks/Napoleonic HRE as well.


End file.
